Clues to Guidance

Someone has picked up from the sewage lines of the Internet, a collection of objectionable ahadith and sent across to us. The compiler holds a PhD in absurdity.

It is obvious that the compiler would not like to submit to the Law of Islam, which depends heavily on the Hadith. But since he cannot directly say so, he finds fault in Bukhari. If Bukhari can be criticized, what other collection can escape? Thus, the Law of Islam is done away with.

Either the compiler does not know enough English to express himself properly, or he is sneaky. While he finds defects in dozens of ahadith, he also says,

“The Prophet was a cool-minded with exceptional self-control,” or,

“The Prophet used to stand in prayers all night,” or,

“The Prophet was a perfect guide to humanity,” or,

“He was not a man of unbridled desire,” or,

“His character was nothing but the Qur’an,” or,

“Prophet Muhammad was the most courageous person in the world,” or,

“He preached against omens and superstitions,” or,

“He declared that modesty is part of faith,” or,

“The Prophet was the busiest man on earth.”

One may ask, from where did he obtain the above information about the Prophet, except the Hadith literature?

At all events, by praising the Prophet, he tries to win the audience. If they are imbecile, they’d assume he is defending the Prophet; but, in actual fact, he not only rejects the Hadith, but also rejects some of the Qur’an.

Unless he has laid his hands on a faulty translation, he seems to twists ahadith to suit his purpose. For those who wonder how ahadith could have been forged in the past, he could be cited as a Hadith forger.

His disbelief in Hadith seems to be in an advanced stage – at a point of no return. But reply we must, because he is trusted and as ignorance spreads, the numbers of those who trust this kind of person grows.

Sometime later, we shall deal with his compilation from other angles. At the moment, we shall look into a few ahadith against which he raises absurd objections. He writes,

The Hadith Collection by “Imam” Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Ismail Bukhari is considered by Mullahs and their blind followers as the most authentic book on earth after the Quran. Let’s examine it. Most of the references given here belong to Bukhari published by Madina Publishing Company, Karachi, 1982, Printer Hamid & Co. The translator into Urdu is “Maulana” Abdul Hakim Khan Shahjahanpuri.

Objectionable Hadith no.1

In the long Hadith 339, we find Prophet Moses advising Muhammad (S) that he return to God again and again to get the number of daily prayers reduced from 50 to 5. We also encounter the joke that God said, “These are five but these are fifty. Our Word never changes.” The storyteller seems to be bent upon proving Prophet Moses as a teacher to Muhammad (S).

Clues to Guidance:

The great Sufi of India Ashraf Ali Thanwi takes the ignorant Sufis to task in several of his writings. He writes (in Fana’un Nufus) that Allah Most High took special care to expose the humanness of Prophet Muhammad and subjected him to the demands of nature quite often in order that – impressed by his supreme qualities, and in love with his matchless personality – his followers should not lift him up to the level of Divinity.

Thanwi cites the example of the so-called Ghaws-e-A`zam, how he has been deified and given the powers of divinity. For example, the ignorant lovers of the Ghaws narrate that an old woman came to him and said that her son was dead and that he should quicken him. The Ghaws told her that his life-term was over and so he cannot be brought back to life. She started crying and insisting that he be raised up alive. So, the Ghaws set his attention towards Allah and made the request. Allah told him that the boy’s life-term was up and nothing could be done. So the Ghaws told Allah that His help was, indeed, only necessary because of the fact that the boy had completed his term. If any of it was left, he would not have appealed to Him but rather would do the needful himself. Allah answered back saying that Qada’ and Qadr had taken the course and could not be rolled back. That made the Ghaws angry. He used his power of Kashf to locate the angel of death. He found him carrying a bag stuffed with the spirits of those that had been dealt with death that day. He told the angel to return the soul of the dead boy. The angel wouldn’t agree. So, the Ghaws-e-Azam snatched the bag from him and emptied it of all the souls. They flew off to their bodies and all those who had died that day gained new lives. The Ghaws then turned to Allah and said, “You were not ready to release a single soul! Hopefully now you are satisfied with so many souls released.”

After narrating this blasphemous story, Thanwi remarks that if such has been the attitude of the ignorant Muslims with the so-called saints of the past, what would they not have done with Prophet Muhammad, had not Allah exposed him to the calls of nature, and revealed his humanness in quite many ways?

Doesn’t the encounter between Musa and Prophet Muhammad during the Mi`raj journey, and the Prophet’s repeated appeals to Allah to reduce the number of Prayers a day, in the manner of a slave begging his master, serve the purpose pointed out by Thanwi?

Objectionable hadith 2:

Prophet Solomon boasted that he would impregnate one hundred women in one night, but only one woman became pregnant and gave birth to a half-formed child. [Book of Nikah 3: 110, 226]. This tragedy is reported elsewhere to have occurred because Solomon did not say “In-Sha-Allah” (God willing) before going to his hundred wives.

Clues to Guidance:

Careful! Do not attribute to Prophets what they did not say or do. No hadith says Sulayman (asws) “boasted.”

These are envoys of Allah who travel to the Heavens and back in a single night. Time is stretched for them. One word of disrespect to any of them could mean permanent residence in the Fire.

Objectionable hadith 3:

The Messenger (S) used to visit all nine of his wives every night. [Vol. 3, Pg. 52, Book of Nikah, 34]. On the other hand, Bukhari repeatedly narrates that the Prophet used to stand at prayers all night, so much so that his feet used to swell.

The Messenger (S) used to have intercourse with all of his wives in one hour of the day and night (without taking a bath) and these (wives) were eleven. The narrator tries to pre-empt an objection by stating that he had the (sexual) power of 30 men. [Vol. 1, Pg. 189, Book of Bath, 266].

Clues to Guidance:

The translation of the second paragraph is wrong, but to move forward anyway:

At the base, all men are equal in mental abilities. It is education that makes the difference. You pick up a man from deep African forests and pass him through a course say in medicine. At the end he emerges as good as any other doctor. He will inform you that among the human beings, the maximum successful copulation on record in Medical annuls is 11 a day, although of course, admittedly, the figure is much less than those of several other creations of God.

But, education, education, education. What shall we do with our uneducated?

Objectionable hadith 4:

After the fall of Khyber, people described the beauty of Safia Bint Hui, the new bride of a slain enemy soldier. The Prophet chose her for himself. On the way to Madina he camped and had intercourse with her. His companions did not know if she was a wife or a concubine.

Later, a veil was drawn between her and the men-folk and they came to know that she was a wife. [Book of Sales and Book of Nikah 3: 57, 78]. Elsewhere, the narrator of the wicked story states that Safia was initially given to Wahia Kulbi, but because of her beauty, the Prophet chose her for himself, and asked Wahia to pick another woman.

Clues to Guidance:

Do you mean Safiyyah bint Huyayy b. Akthab?

Safiyyah? Oh Safiyyah! What do you know who Safiyyah is?

The one the Prophet saved from slavery, offered her Islam, paid on behalf of her the price of freedom, married her with her consent, and then offered dates and butter to his Companions saying, “This is the waleemah of your mother?”

Wretched son! Are you disowning your mother?

Safiyyah, Ah Safiyyah, the Harooniyyah, as the Companions would refer to her, lovingly, respectfully, and declare that she should be the share of none but of the Sayyidu bani Adam, because she was from the family of Prophets!

Ah! Are you talking of the same Safiyyah who received a powerful slap from her Jewish father that left her one eye blue all her life, because she dreamt that the moon had fallen into her house? The father shouted: “Hey. Are you dreaming of being the wife of the King of Arabs?”

Are you talking of the same Safiyyah on whose account the Prophet did not speak to his wife Zaynab bint Jahsh for three months because she referred to her as a Jewess?

You call her Safia Bint Hui? And call Dihya al-Kalbi, the person in whose image Jibril appeared as Wahia Kulbi?

Unfortunate man, how about learning enough Arabic to be able to read names, and differentiate between “waaw” and “daal“?

Objectionable hadith 5:

“A woman presented herself to the Prophet. He intently gazed at her from head to toe and then lowered his head.” (He was not interested in her.) [Book of Nikah 3: 71, 113]

The Prophet said to a man, “I make you the owner of this woman because you can recite some Surahs of the Qur’an.” [Book of Nikah 3: 69, 109]

Clues to Guidance:

Hush.

There is complete silence.

They are stunned.

Who is this woman?

A Bedouin? Doesn’t look exactly like one.

A city woman? Could be, or could not be.

The Prophet surveys her from head to foot.

He too is amazed.

She is clothed in mystery.

His Companions also turn their heads around to look at her, then turn back to him – in expectation, in wonder.

Head bowed, the Prophet must be thinking.

And so are their minds engaged during that pin-drop silence.

What could she mean? Has she no father, no brother, to marry her off?

Does anyone around know her? None?

What’s her problem?

Could she be under some sort of psychological pressure? Or economic?

But that doesn’t explain her strange, bold request.

The Prophet never said ‘no’ to anyone who asked him anything.

His silence at that moment meant a ‘no’ which he would not spell to hurt her, a stranger though she was.

At last, the silence of the assembly is broken. A man stands up, “I’ll marry her.”

A man of God.

But what did he have to offer her as bridal-gift (mahr)?

He thinks he is a pauper: “I have nothing,” he says.

But the Prophet does not think that he is a pauper.

He inquires about the real wealth and he answers, “Oh yes, I have such and such of the Qur’an memorized.”

That’s it. He may have her; and what he knows of the Qur’an is the bridal-gift to her.

Agreed?

Agreed.

Agreed?

Agreed.

Sighs of relief. Smile on the faces. Mabruk. Barakah from the heavens.

A man of God is paired with a woman of God.

The Sufis begin to dance.

Social workers of Islam, wake up. With 25% marriages breaking up, the problem is now knocking at your doors. Flood waters are rising.

Far into the past were days when people married for religion. Today it is a denier of the basics of Islam, but rich, who is sought after.

Barakah in their lives? What barakah? There is barakah only in their stupidity.

You have a long way to go, backward, upward, to the Golden Age of Islam, when a woman spent a life celebrating that she was married off for a piece of the Qur’an.

Those were times when the Qur’an was Allah’s Revelation. The people believed that it was the Word of God. They thought the Qur’an was a treasure. They revered it, learnt it, lived by it, and married for it.

Could the pair then, who came together in the love of the Qur’an, in the service of the Qur’an, break up?

Will you never learn any lesson?

Objectionable hadith 6:

Mahmood bin Rabe’ narrates, “I still remember when I was five years old. The Prophet (S) rinsed his mouth and then poured the water onto mine.” [Vol. 1, Kitab ul ‘Ilm, Pg. 130, Hadith 77]. Could the exalted Prophet hold any human being at that level of contempt?

Clues to Guidance:

Idiot! If the Prophet spat on your face in your dream, you will perhaps be admitted into Paradise on the Day of Judgment.